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The Māori All Blacks had won their two earlier clashes, in 1998 in Edinburgh and in 2000 in New Plymouth, but coach Gregor Townsend’s understaffed side, with only one starter from their last Six Nations game, showed encouraging depth in the manner of their win.

But the Māori All Blacks didn’t give up without a stunning fight back to push the game to its limit.

Surviving three lineouts five metres from their line in five minutes of injury time, the Scots drove through when the Māori failed to secure the ball at the third, to claim a win.

The home team stormed through a massive 28 phases looking for breakthroughs before a penalty was conceded in injury time. But the Scots survived six minutes and 18 seconds before they secured the ball to claim what was a deserved win.

Clever use of kicks behind the Māori All Blacks backline opened up opportunities, and Scotland made the most of them as they fought back from a lightning start made by the home team.

Thirty-nine seconds was all it took, time for Scotland to field the kick-off and for their halfback George Horne to kick from the base of the ruck, and for the Māori All Blacks to field the ball, and move it to the left where wing Bailyn Sullivan, ran, chipped ahead and regained the bouncing ball to pass inside to supporting halfback Sam Nock who ran in the try.

Scotland lacked possession until around the ninth minute when consecutive penalties allowed them to kick their way into the Māori 22m area and from a ruck a kick was put through by second five-eighths and captain Stafford McDowell for wing Harry Paterson to run through to ground the ball just inside the dead-ball line.

Sticking with their kicking plan from the base of rucks by Horne brought him reward when the Māori botched covering the kick and it was punched through by centre Rory Hutchinson. The ball bounced erratically near the line, and it was Horne who clasped it to his body to score after 23 minutes.

Undeterred, the Māori All Blacks managed to build attacks in the Scots’ half, and drew penalties as the Scots were put under a yellow card warning. From a 31st-minute lineout in the corner, the Māori worked the ball infield before moving it back wide to flanker TK Howden on the sideline, and while tackled, he got a pass inside to lock Isaia Walker-Leawere, who scored.

An extra advantage came when replacement No. 8 Alexander Masibaka was sin-binned for a high tackle during the play.

But the home team couldn’t maintain the pressure, and Scots fullback Ollie Smith was able to give his side a pre-halftime boost when securing a 50-22 kick. From the resulting lineout, the ball was moved wide, and Hutchinson was able to put another kick through to space where wing Arron Reed profited from the bounce to score for a 24-12 lead at the break.

In direct contrast to their first-half start, the Māori All Blackswere punished for their undisciplined start off a poorly directed pass to the in-goal area by Nock. First five-eighths Rivez Reihana attempted to kick the ball out, but under pressure, it didn’t clear the in-goal, and Howden batted the ball over the dead-ball line, earning a yellow card in the process.

Moments later, with Scotland still in the 22m area, Bailyn Sullivan deliberately knocked the ball down to join Howden in the bin.

Scotland was initially unable to benefit as Hastings knocked the ball on in a promising position. The Māori All Blacks cleared their line and then stole a lineout from Scotland, but Nock’s 52nd-minute kick proved too deep and Scotland spread the ball to the left where Hutchinson, Reed and Horne combined for the latter to score his second try.

Restored to full strength, the Māori All Blacks had a lineout five metres from the line and skipper and hooker Kurt Eklund completed the maul with a try out wide and Reihana landed a sideline conversion.

Scotland looked to open up the home team on the flanks, but the defence held, and then when a kick found wing Daniel Rona just inside his 22m area, he had the time to spear a kick into touch in the Scotland 22m area for a 50-22m turnover.

The Māori All Blacks surged onto the ball and with several pick-and-goes on the line, they moved it wide with a long pass from Zarn Sullivan finding Gideon Wrampling on the flank, and he scored, with replacement Kaleb Trask’s conversion getting the Māori within three points and setting up a fascinating conclusion.

Scorers: Māori All Blacks 26 (Sam Nock, Isaia Walker-Leawere, Kurt Eklund, Gideon Wrampling tries; Rivez Reihana 2 con; Kaleb Trask con) Scotland 29 (Harry Paterson, George Horne 2, Arron Reed tries; Adam Hastings 3 con, pen). HT: 24-12

Wales boss Rhian Wilkinson says her side must learn lessons from their opening defeat.

“I mean, like the very first question we get at the draw is what a group, right? And we have a hard group, there’s no getting away from that,” she said.

“To concede a goal right before half is always painful.

“We have to create more opportunities and we have to make sure that those moments of lapses get fewer and fewer. But this is the world stage.

“This is the big event and, you know, it’s intimidating. It’s the first game, but equally this is what we want.”

Wilkinson is confident her players will improve against France in St Gallen on Wednesday night.

“Getting into the half at 0-0 would have gone a long way. In the second half, that quick goal definitely hurt us,” she added.

“We have a huge, huge mountain in front of us in this tournament and we’re excited about that. We want to play at the world stage and to be courageous in doing that.”

Wilkinson says she was “emotional,” seeing the Welsh fans, with almost 4,000 making the trip to Lucerne and knows this is a chance to showcase the country.

“We’re here now and forever Wales women have made it to a major tournament. These women will turn this around. I’m not worried about that,” she added.

“It’s disappointing to lose 3-0, but it’s not calamitous. It is a new opportunity for us to go towards the next which will be another huge test.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful, but many people don’t know where Wales is on a map. And that’s what we get to show people now.”

Erin Routliffe and Michael Venus have been knocked out of the mixed doubles in the first round at Wimbledon, losing 6-4 6-4 to Luisa Stefani from Brazil and Britain’s Joe Salisbury.

It was an unusual mixed doubles match played on Saturday, in front of a packed crowd on Court 16. Venus had his serve broken in the first game of each set and both times the Kiwis couldn’t get the break back.

Routliffe and Venus had two break points when Stefani was serving at 2-1 in the opening set and after that, the British/Brazilian team didn’t give up another break point.

“They played really well,” Venus said after the match. 

“I don’t know what their first serve percentage was (69%), but it felt like we weren’t getting many looks at second serves. 

“They were very clinical, they made first serves and their service partner finished a lot of points. They didn’t really give us anything.” 

Venus and Routliffe felt there were times when they were getting close to having more break points, but Stefani and Salisbury stayed solid.

“We were on the borderline a couple times of kind of getting going,” Venus said.

“It doesn’t help when you go down a break, they’re playing ahead and they just kept rolling.

“They played well, we were playing from behind a little bit,” Routliffe added. 

“But we had chances on Luisa’s serve once, Joe served unreal. 

“When you’re guessing where he’s going to go, it’s hard to get that and even when we chipped, he did a really good job of, like, taking overheads. I felt like he finished the second ball really well.”

The defeat ends Routliffe and Venus’s mixed doubles campaign for 2025, leaving Routliffe still alive in the women’s doubles.

On Monday (UK time), Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski will play Irina Khromacheva from Russia and Hungary’s Fanny Stollar for a place in the quarterfinals.